Photo: Douglas Goldman, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Water Tupelo

Nyssa aquatica

Also called tupelo gum, cotton gum, water gum, Nyssa uniflora.

A long-lived tree of southern river swamps, with a bottle-shaped base, that stands in floodwater for months and feeds bees in spring.

Tolerates wet soilHoney treeWildlife valueFall color

Type: Large tree
Mature height: 60–100 ft
USDA zones: 6–10
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, swamps and wet flats
Native range: 14 states, north to Illinois, south to Florida and west to Texas
List all 14
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia
Also recorded in 1 other state, outside its native range. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Water tupelo is the big tupelo of southern river swamps and sloughs, often in pure stands or beside bald cypress. Its trunk swells into a bottle-shaped base that can reach 10 to 12 feet across. The light, buoyant wood of the base is carved into duck decoys, and the spongy roots once floated fish nets. The fruit floats on floodwater, and the seed stays alive under water for 14 months or more. Set it at a pond or lake edge, in a swale that floods, or in ground too wet for most other trees.

Size, growth and what to expect

Water tupelo grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. On a good South Carolina site, trees 30 years old averaged about 75 feet. Expect 60 to 100 feet with a narrow crown 25 to 50 feet wide.

The small greenish flowers open in March and April, before or with the leaves. Wind and probably bees carry the pollen, and beekeepers value the flowers. The oblong fruit, dark purple with pale dots and up to an inch and a half long, ripens in September and October and falls through December. Wood ducks and other birds, squirrels, raccoons and deer eat it.

It grows wild on the Coastal Plain from southeast Virginia to south Georgia, and from northwest Florida along the Gulf to southeast Texas. It reaches up the Mississippi valley to southern Illinois. Its home is deep swamps and sloughs, where floods can stand 20 feet deep.

How to grow Water Tupelo

Water tupelo wants full sun and takes part shade. Give it a wet, acid soil of muck, clay, silt or sand. It grows best where floodwater covers the ground for most of the growing season. It will also grow in moist ground that drains, but it tolerates no drought. Plant it 25 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 30 feet apart.

Saplings ship potted. The long taproot makes an older tree hard to move, so plant it young and leave it in place. Plant in the dormant season, in a hole wider than the pot and deep enough for the taproot. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and mulch a wide ring clear of the trunk. Sow the cleaned seed outdoors in fall, an inch deep. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for 30 to 120 days first. Keep the bed wet but not flooded, since the seed will not sprout under water.

Water weekly through the first summer unless the ground stays wet. A seedling can stand a flood all summer as long as its top stays above the water. Deer eat the leaves, twigs and sprouts, so guard young trees for the first few years.

Trees are male or female, and only females bear the dark purple fruit, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. Forest trees begin to bear at about 30 years. Forest tent caterpillars strip the leaves in some years, though trees seldom die of it. The leaves turn yellow in fall.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (10)